Abstract

The manufacturing technologies are undergoing industrial revolution, primarily by significant advances in additive layer manufacturing (popularly known as 3D Printing) technologies. Instead of taking material out through conventional processes one builds desired parts by precisely adding one layer over another. This results in parts that are lighter, have almost zero wastage and afford flexibility to design parts not possible to manufacture using conventional technologies. Using this technology, the parts can be manufactured close to where they are needed and when they are needed. This can have significant impact on global supply chain operations, inventory control, labor arbitrage in the manufacturing sector, remanufacturing, and parts management. The technology significantly impacts the supply chain evolution by means of demand uncertainty, logistics optimization, increased flexibility, increased responsiveness, and required inventory reduction for production. Supply chain disintermediation, customer empowerment, co-creation and mass customization are other benefits. This paper describes about the technology of additive layer manufacturing and its relevance to supply chain. It also provides the existing and potential future stakeholders. It provides the key factors which are influencing the business case of additive layer manufacturing on aerospace and defense supply chain. It explains the drivers of supply chain operations in terms of economic factors, resource, raw material, machine, tooling, quality, scaling, distribution and maintenance support. It also describes the trends on changes in sourcing & supply chain due to additive layer manufacturing in other industry sectors. It provides the technical, legal, financial and political implication assessment. It explains about the competitor footprint and extent of adoption of technology. It concludes the analysis of the impact of additive layer manufacturing technologies on aerospace and defense supply chain.